Spidey On Spidey: Tobey Maguire Interviews Andrew Garfield

This is pretty awesome: Former Spider-Man Tobey Maguire interviews current ‘Amazing Spider-Man‘ star Andrew Garfield about … well, about being Spider-Man. It all went down in VMan magazine, but we have choice excerpts here.

Maguire, who played Peter Parker in three Sam Raimi ‘Spider-Man’ films, gets things off on the right foot by admitting how happy he was to see Garfield cast in the update.

“I just want it to be great, and I thought, ‘What a great actor Andrew is,’” Maguire said. “I’m glad that’s what’s happening here.”

The two went on to share the feelings they each went through in the days and weeks leading up to the releases of their respective Spider-Man films.

Tobey Maguire: What kind of effect has this had on you?

Andrew Garfield: The main thing I’m thinking about and worrying about is what happens after this movie comes out. What was your experience when you became Spider-Man in people’s eyes? I’m interested to hear what you have to say about the whole life change that it brings. Because right now I have a host of fears that I’m contending with on a minute-to-minute basis. I’m not in the reality of it yet, so I’m sure I’m imagining it will be much worse than it is. I admire you so much because you’re an actor and that’s all you’ve ever been and all you ever will be. It must be very hard to hold on to the simple fact of wanting to be an actor, to tell stories and not have your image become bigger than your art. Do you have a recollection of a definite change, or was it a seamless thing?

TM: I think our thing was a little bit different because movies hadn’t been doing the sort of opening-weekend business that’s fairly common — even expected — today. The first ‘Harry Potter’ came out about six months before us and it was this phenomenon from day one. It was so wild because it was a new thing at that moment — and I’m not saying that hasn’t happened in movie history, but at the time that was a big jump. And then that happened with us. People didn’t anticipate [2002's ‘Spider- Man’] to be like that. Leading up to it, you start to get reactions and people tell you, you know, what the tracking is and what range your opening weekend box office is likely to be. But for me it was kind of unexpected. So much shifted in my life the weekend the movie came out. It was shocking.

It’s interesting to have one guy who has gone through a similar experience telling the next guy what he’s likely to endure. Maybe Brandon Routh can get Henry Cavill on the telephone to talk Superman?